EMCO
Gears 250 at Mid Ohio
August
27, 2005
As the 2005 Grand
American Rolex Series progresses, five teams have a legitimate shot at
the series championship. With 5 rounds remaining on the 14 race
calendar, every position becomes critically important. Still
leading the championship is the Synergy #80 Porsche, but the #16 BMW has
been closing in steadily all season. Last year's SGS champions are
currently in third, and their new #65 Pontiac GTO.R is really helping
them move back to the top. Close behind them is our #14 Porsche,
and we are trailed by the #73 Tafel Racing Porsche.
Cory
Friedman and Leh Keen have been doing an excellent job in the #14 car
all season, and we were hoping for another top-5 this race. More
important than our overall position, however, is where we finish
relative to the top cars in the Championship. Our #94 car was not
able to make this race due to the horrendous crash last race at Watkins
Glen.
We spent the Thursday
Test day adjusting the car to handle the inconsistent track
surface. By the end of the test, we were making progress and were
up to 6th fastest. The car developed some strange handling
characteristics in the Friday morning practice session. We
discovered that the sudden understeer was caused by a broken rear sway
bar. One of the blades failed due to fatigue. We
continued working on the set-up, and by qualifying we felt the car was
good and expected Leh could qualify the car easily in the top 10.
Keen had a great run going, but his fast lap was interrupted by a black
flag. Qualifying sessions are only 15 minutes, so when the course
went green again, there was only enough time for 1 flying lap. We
sat 8th at this point, but hoped to improve on that last lap. Leh
had another great lap going, but caught a slower car, which killed our
chances of improving. Even more unfortunate was the fact that a
few other cars were able to improve the last lap, and we dropped to
10th. This was disappointing but not catastrophic, as we expected
this to be a very exciting and eventful race.
Not
unlike most races this season, all practice sessions were completely
dry, but race day brought out significant rain leaving us wondering what
tires to start on. By race time, the rain had cleared, and we had
only light sprinkles sporadically during the race. This has become
normal to the point of being expected this season.
One
of the BMWs was found to be too low in post-qualifying tech, so Leh
started the race in 9th position. Our strategy for this event
counted on significant periods under caution during the early part of
the race. If the race ran mostly green in the first half-hour or
so, we would have had to make a quick change in our plans. No
change was needed, however, as the first yellow flag came out before the
first lap had even been completed. This trend continued, as it did
during the practice sessions, and in the first 0:45 of the race, only 6
laps ran under a green flag. This was enough to allow Leh to
overtake one car and move into 8th position.
The
third caution of the race was a very long yellow caused by a nasty 5-car
incident. The #2 DP had a "harmless" spin leaving the
car in the middle of the track in turn 8. This is one of Mid
Ohio's more dramatic elevation changes, and the DP was not visible until
after drivers had crested the hill. Drivers who heeded the waving
yellow were able to avoid the car, but another DP apparently ignored the
flag and ran into her, leaving 2 cars now blocking the circuit.
This in itself was not a problem, but the entire GT field came through
shortly afterward. Many cars including Leh emerged unscathed, but
the #81 car ran square into the 2 stationary prototypes. Before
that car had even slid to a stop, the 96 Porsche made the same mistake with
similar consequence. The last car involved was the #23 GTO, who
was the only car able to continue. While the incident was
certainly not easy to avoid, it was reasonable to do so, as evidenced by
more than a dozen cars who did avoid it. It was simply a matter of
drivers not responding to the waving yellow, and when they finally saw
the incident, were going to fast to evade.
During
this yellow, the #65 GTO.R came in to put Lally in the car, so we moved
up to 7th. It also became apparent that most cars were gambling on
a one-stop strategy as we were. At the 1:00 mark, Leh was still in
7th, less than 10 seconds from the class leader, and surprisingly, we
were still on the overall lead lap. Just before the next long
yellow, Keen was passed by the #65 GTO.R and #21 BMW. Fortunately,
the #16 BMW (2nd in points) slowed on course. When the yellow came
out, we sat 8th.
This yellow was
where pit strategy really came into play. Stopping immediately
would allow you to pick up positions, but there was still more than 1:30
to go, and you would run the risk of running out of fuel before the end
of the race. The #73 and #80 Porsches came in immediately, but we
felt this was too early. The #80 team might have thought the same
thing, as they came in again 10 minutes later, still under yellow.
The 2 BMWs still running strong also came in, leaving us in 4th.
When we were finally confident we could finish the race without stopping
again, the DP field had cycled, and it looked possible to get a
wave-by. Unfortunately, only the #36 and #64 cars got the wave and
took a distinct lead over the rest of the GT field.
At
this point, it was definitely time to make our stop. We were
confident we could make the finish, but between that and holding out for
the wave-by, we lost a bit of track position. Cory took to the
track in 11th position, but was still on the lead lap. We wondered
whether a few cars ahead of us could make the finish without stopping
again. The green flag came out with a bit over an hour left to
go. The first few laps racing were very eventful. The #71
Porsche was damaged, forcing a pit stop and allowing Cory to move into
the top 10. Cory and a few others were in close proximity
attempting to lap a Ferrari, when the Ferrari checked-up. The accordion
effect under braking caused the #36 car to hit Friedman's passenger side
rear corner. This was not a hard hit, but it broke our bumper,
which began to hang off the car. Cory continued to circulate with
the broken bumper, but the car that hit him managed to impale his
radiator on our rear tow hook. The 36 car was forced to retire, allowing
us to move into 9th.
This was an
unusually long stint without a caution at nearly 50 minutes, so we hoped
some cars ahead of us would be making a second stop. The #80 car
slowed slightly due to overheating problems, and the #22 BMW took a
splash of fuel, so we gained 2 more positions, now running 7th. At
the 2:00 mark, Cory was running strong laps and was within striking
distance of a few cars in front. Unfortunately, our rear bumper
cover let go, and Grand Am forced us to stop under green to make
repairs. The car had barely stopped, and Gordon had hacksawed the
damaged corner of the bumper off. The stop, including the drive
down pit lane, cost us only 26 seconds. It was an amazing effort
that kept us in 7th position, but Cory had a good bit of catching up to
do.
Friedman was reeling in 5th and
6th place cars, and putting ground on the 8th place car when the #38 car
made a pit stop, presumably for fuel. Now running in 6th, Cory
spent the next 10 laps slowly catching the #73 car, but there was only
20 minutes left and it looked unlikely that we could make up the 20
second deficit. Fortunately, a yellow came out, and grouped us
back together with the 5th and 4th place cars. The #73 car stopped
for fuel during the caution, and the race leading #64 GTO.R had a front
suspension failure. The course went green for the last time with
10 minutes remaining. Cory was in 4th with the #73 car just behind
and #61 car just in front.
Friedman
steadily opened up the gap on the #73 car, and was making a hard charge
for the last podium position. He closed the gap from 5 seconds
down to less than a second with 4 laps remaining. They ran
nose-to-tail with both drivers careful not to make a mistake.
Knowing we had a championship on the line, we avoided any desperate
moves and crossed the checkers less than 0.6 seconds away from another
podium.
We are very pleased with
4th at this race. Fuel strategy and attrition certainly worked in
our favor, and our position in the standings has improved despite
maintaining 4th place, as we finished ahead of all but one of the Series
front-runners . We improved our lead over #73 to 5 points, and now
trail #16 in 3rd by only 3. We're less than 10 points out of 2nd
place, and the leader is still within striking distance at 21
points. The driver standings are very similar with Cory and Leh
maintaining 6th position. The Porsches can not match the pace of
the GTO.R and BMW, but with strong pit strategy and reliability, we are
still optimistic for a top-3 finish in the 2005 Team Championship with 4
races remaining. |
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